TV Link vs Wireless TV senders

Hi,

3 questions

1) Is there any noticable difference in picture quality between scart based wireless TV senders and the coaxial based Sky TV link method? I'm looking to distribute my new Sky+ to an LCD in the bedroom and one in the kitchen. (There'll only ever be a maximum of one wall between the Sky+ box and the receiver.
My experience has always told me that Scart is better than an RF one but I would be using double shielded coaxial cable round the side of the house. I'm only interested in distributing Sky by the way, not DVD etc.

2) What are the best versions of the wireless and wired TV senders? I've heard that the Philips one and the DIGIlink ones respectively are the best. Also heard the Global's TV link has problems, the DIGIlink is the best and the SLXlink is a bit cheapo.

3) Using a TV link method, to amplify the signal out to two ports, is there any difference in using a separate power supply to using the Sky boxes one?

Thanks

Carl

[Messiah]

Picture quality aside, one of the major differences is when you redistribute an RF signal you will lose any stereo information and therefore only get mono sound. Many wireless AV senders can distribute stereo sound.

I use wireless senders to distribute Comp video and stereo audio from my cable box,

Be aware that as soon as any walls come into the equation, the signal degrades noticably.

[Big Al]

I use AEI's Digisender to send Sky (from our lounge) to our Hitachi 32PD3000 (in our bedroom). The picture and sound is perfect. We ocasionally get interferance from our WI Fi set up, but this is usually solved by moving the router or the digisender unit slightly.

You can pick up a variety of digisenders from Argos.

Big Al

[D J Fryer]

Sorry to bump this - it seemed appropriate. I use a One For All sender that allows RGB from Sky+ to be passed through the sender unit to my screen downstairs. However this does seem to degrade slightly the picture on my downstairs screen.

I can't use the video scart on the Sky+ box to the sender as I understand that this is disabled when the box is set to output RGB.

The sender works well for the TV upstairs and quality is good with good remote signal sending. Have I missed a solution other than going for a wired TV Link (with mono sound ) that won't degrade my picture quality on my main downstairs screen?

[Big Al]

The digisender is connected to skys TV out scart, as a break out / adaptor, with the normal scart going to the Plasma downstairs.

As a result of this I get RGB upstais & widescreen switching.

Is it possible to set up your One for All sender in a similair way?

Big Al

[D J Fryer]

Big Al - how do you mean its connected 'as a break out/adaptor'? Going back to my gcse physics days ( ) would this be comparable to connecting them in 'parallel' rather than how I am currently doing it in 'series'? If so what do you use to do this? Some sort of scart splitter? Again my worry would be any loss of pic quality......

[Big Al]

D J Fryer

Probally didnot explain my self correctly - so here goes.

It is an adadptor, kind of like a scart coupler, with a wire for the digisender hardwired into it. So, you plug digisender adaptor into TV output of scart and this leaves a female coupling for your scart to TV to go into.

As stated picture quality is supurb, RGB out put and widescreen switching on Hitachi 42 PD3000 downstairs & Hitachi 32PD3000 upstairs.

Big Al

[Darren Blake]

Al, have you seen my other threads about the problems I am having with my Digisender? I'm getting all sorts of crosstalk between the picture and the sound, especially on the Sky menu. I take it this is not happening to you at all?

[Big Al]

Darren

I do not experience the problem you have described.

However, I had to make quite a few positioning adjustments to the transmitter and receiver before I got the best results.

Also make sure that the scarts at boyh ends of the chain are securly plugged in.

Hope this helps

Big Al

My sender looks watchable through 2 walls and at about 60 foot to the end of the garden, but this is only with very particular placement

[Darren Blake]

Well this weekend I bought another Digisender and tried that with the same resukts, so its not a duff sender. I even took the thing apart and unplugged the stock SCART lead from the PCB and made up a new lead using high quality coax and gold plated phono plugs. No difference.

The crosstalk appears to be happening inside the guts of the transmitter or reciever. It doesn't seem to be anything to do with the cabling or position or the input signal.

Going to exchange my second AEI Digisender for a Phiips one at Argos tomorrow and see if that does any better. No reply from AE to my e-mail or my post on their support forum.

Very dissappointed in the product.

[Darren Blake]

OK. Update (after a nice cup of tea and a sit down).

Actually, I do like the Digisender. If I remove the video signal the sound quality is great (I have it feeding into an AEGO2 2.1 system). If I ignore the sound issues, then the picture quality is great (if a little bit contrast-y). Clearly it is cabalbe of working well, but its only whren I try to combine picture and sound that I get problems.

AEI managed to raise my bloodpressure at the weekend because all three of their websites went down. I just rang them up and after letting the phone ring off the hook long enough to convice me that they had gone out of business, someone finally answered. He was very helpful and told me that people had complained of this before but it could always be solved by flicking the "contrast" switch on the Digiconnector. This actually has bugger all to do with contrast. It actually switches in and out a 75ohm impedance matching resistor between the video out and video ground lines in the SCART lead. Changing the switch over DOES alter the contrast, but only as a side effect.

The thing is, the picture is still very contrast-y. Could this be an impedance matching issue? Unlikely because so far I've tried it connected to three different pieces of equipment and they all behave the same. Currently it is connected to my Denon amp via my upgraded cable (which include a 75ohm resistor). I find it difficult to believe that a decent peice of equipment would not have a properly matched output.

Tonight I'm going to try both transmitter and reciever in the same room together with bugger all in between just in case something is causing interference. Failing that I'll have to send it back to AEI for another replacement and get them to check it out.

ANY ideas anyone???

[D J Fryer]

All I can say Darren is do not replace it with the Philips - they are nowhere near as reliable when it comes to transmitting the remote signals and placement is so tricky that you will end up more frustrated than with the AEI. I am using a One For All (1720??? I think) and it is very good other than it looks terrible :D

[Darren Blake]

Cheers for that DJ. I'll have a look at what else Argos can offer.

If it's not a Digisender issue, then it must be fixable (unless there's something wacky about my AV setup that only a few other people sufer from). I'd like to think that if I keep plugging away at it I'll find the problem...